Ceramic forms of titanate compounds have many uses in electronics. For example, barium titanate doped with a rare earth, such as lanthanum, has unique properties relating to its electrical resistivity which dramatically increases at temperatures above an anomaly and is widely used, inter alia, as temperature sensors. Another titanate, barium strontium titanate has unique properties relating to its pyroelectric coefficient which varies relative to temperature and is useful in sensing thermal radiation. Typically, devices which use barium strontium titanate (BST) material as a thermal radiation sensor comprise an array of pixels which were previously formed on a substrate. Such an array includes regularly spaced grooves of a selected depth, e.g., 1-2 mils, which extend along an X axis and a Y axis with the grooves having a selected width, e.g., a half mil, so that the array has a large number of generally square, flat lands per unit area which may be in the order of thousand of pixels per square centimeter. The total area of such arrays can vary depending on their use from one which may only have very few pixels, even a single pixel, up to several square centimeters containing thousands of pixels.
As stated above, pixels formed of barium strontium titanate exhibit a change in pyroelectric coefficient when subjected to thermal radiation and with a dense array can generate signals which can be electronically processed into visual images corresponding to the sensed thermal radiation. However, for effective use the pixels need to be accurately formed preferably with a relatively flat top surface and precisely located on the substrate relative to one another.
The conventional method of forming pixel arrays in titanate ceramic materials utilize a laser to cut or burn the grooves in a substrate of the material, such as barium strontium titanate. While this procedure can provide the desired accurate formation and precise location, it is a time consuming and costly procedure, particularly where a large number of grooves are required.